Apple's most recent screen successes have centered around the Retina display. But a new patent suggests that Apple has been working on displays that can react to their surroundings to dynamically improve the viewing experience.

According to Patently Apple, the company has filed a patent for a mobile display that uses the sensors aboard devices like the iPhone and iPad to understand the world around it. The patent suggests that the "physical and lighting properties of the user's environment" could be used to provide "a more interesting and visually appealing" display.

The patent goes on to suggest that devices could monitor factors like ambient light, as well as the position of the user's eyes, to generate dynamic shadows on their screens. Those shadows could be used to either make the entire display more clear, or even to spotlight what the users is looking at or add perspective to images. The patent also makes it clear that this could be implemented on desktop and laptop displays, too.

It sounds like the kind of thing that anyone who has ever used a laptop or iPad outside would jump at. Anti-glare covers exist, sure, but in my experience they don't really work. This, on the other hand, could mean I spend a lot more time working from my garden. [FPO via Patently Apple; Image: Ed Yourdon]